...In Which Camelids Explain It All To You... The Llama and the Paca True unite their cute furry spitting camelid forces to conquer evil and churn out blog stuff more frequently. Wonder Camelids unite! Shape of a pack animal! Form of wool-bearing, scarf-producing cuddly thing!

Monday, October 23, 2006

Llama Update

I find myself not making good use of my weekends. I think it's because I'm lazy. For about a month or two I was spending the vast majority of the time working through the Wheel of Time books. For those of you who haven't read them or now about them, there are currently 11 books and a short one is over 600 pages. So it took a while to work through them. Now there's one more, maybe two more to come, but Robert Jordan (the author) has acquired a terminal illness, which means I'll probably never find out how how Rand "dies and lives again", what Morraine has been doing with the Aelfine, and who killed Asmodean. So that's why I'm all for stem-cell research... so this guy can get cured and finish his books. Ah, I'm so callous.

I've finished those books though... this weekend I spent most of my time playing game after game of Civ4. It's fun, but I can't win a war for the life of me. I don't like war mongering, and when the Mongol hoard gets tired of me not giving them free tech and declares war on me, it's all over. Oh, I can usually survive, but the resulting carnage puts me so far behind the other civilizations that it's all over. Bah.

Well, the point of this post is to update everyone. I've told most people privately but haven't yet confirmed it here... I will be staying here in Bangkok for another year. I am travelling home for Christmas, though. I'll have about 2 1/2 weeks in Baton Rouge and the 'Boro. I leave here on Dec 14, arriving at the Baton Rouge airport on December 16 at 12:18 PM. I'll leave again on January 3, 8:20 AM. I'm hoping my dear, sweet older sister can pick me up and drop me off! If not, I'm sure we can make some other arrangements.

4 comments:

I had heard rumors, sorry make that rumours, to the effect that Jordan was ill, but I couldn't tell if they were jokes about how he seemed to be incapable of finishing the story (after all, he apparently decided to delay things even more by writing prequels before bothering to continue the main story) or if they were real. Now, I know. I wonder if we will end up with "Lost Tales" packaged up by his wife in a couple years. I keep thinking of the end of Amadeus where Mozart desperately dictates his Requiem while he is dying. I still haven't read the last of the series as I didn't want to fork over for the hardback or devote the time to a 1000 pager, but I've read the others. I was even a member of some Wheel of Time Theories web site for a few weeks - I think, after Crossroads of Twilight or Winter's Heart. But I haven't been there in a long time, and I've actually forgotten the order of books. There's a rumor that something finally happens in the latest book, which would be a nice change. :)

I'm guessing: 1) One of the three people inside Rand will bite it, probably Lews Therin, maybe Rand too, and that third guy or Rand will live. On the other hand, I'm not sure how Jordan's going to handle the man having three wives at once. He only gets away with it at all now because they're never together at once. Maybe some of the wives will get balefired too. Or, wait, maybe we split Rand into three people and each wife gets one of the three people. I like Elayne least so hopefully she will get crazy Lews. 2) Moiraine's playing checkers. I really have no clue here, but Tom's got to save her, right? Through some tower according to the theory guys. 3) That guy Slayer killed Asmodean. Maybe. Yeah, but Jordan said it was really clear who did it in some interview, so it must be clear - to him.

Crossroads of Twilight was slow as Christmas. I'm pretty sure you could just skip the entire book. The last one is good though... Knife of Dreams. At least I think that's the last one. I got it in paperback, not hardcover, so now might be the time for you to read it. The first third is relatively slow... more folding of arms under breasts and sniffing, but then stuff actually happens with both Mat and Perrin. Rand too, though not quite as much with him.

I found a website that has essays upon essays about the WoT, and one of the biggest is "Who killed Asmodean?" Slayer is a leading candidate, but there were a couple of factors that would seem to eliminate him. Then again, the essay finds a couple of factors that would eliminate most every possibility. That leads to much consternation about Jordan's statement that "it should be obvious."

Oh, and I think Rand only has two voices in his head. Him and Lews Therin... and then there's the three wives (I've always been partial to Min) and that other Aes Sedai that bonded him. Must be like a party in his head all the time with 6 people living up there. But I think only Lews Therin speaks to him. Perhaps you are thinking of that all-knowing fellow that showed up out of the blue to help him when he fought Sammael in Shadar Logoth? We have no idea who he is either, but he does have a body of his own...